Volume 2 2007
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CITY TECH VOLUME 2 2007 t h f f v WRi TER w c c it v y t 07 t ech f 20 e wr o iter volume tw d d p s c e R g v g v m d d w f d y e s t c t CITY TECH WRITER Volume 2 2007 Outstanding Student Writing From All Disciplines Jane Mushabac, Editor in Chief Cover by Roshell Ramsay and Sut Lo New York City College of Technology City University of New York Preface What is it like when your child’s father is serving in Iraq? Is it possible to outrun your shadow? What is it like to be a deaf man ordering a closing-time brandy in a Hemingway story? What does the hospitality industry gain by improving access to hotels for those with disabilities? Who taught a young man at a Brooklyn high school to be a student? How does rice evoke family and pleasure? What is eminent domain and why does it matter? How are Antoni Gaudi’s buildings magically colorful? How can researchers get brain-cancer medication past the blood-brain barrier? When is a patient consent form important? How and why did Malcolm X learn to read? The student writers of City Tech Writer ask fabulous questions. They have done their work; now it’s time for the readers to open the book—in hand or online—and browse, or jump in here and there, or read it cover to cover. In the process, you’ll be enlightened, provoked, and amused. As editor, one of my tasks is deciding on the journal’s order of pieces. To see all the connections between pieces, despite the wide range of disciplines, is fascinating. Some informal groupings evolved this year, like one around being a New Yorker. The reader will find the range of perspectives on a given issue refreshing and bold. I want to thank the faculty in fifteen disciplines who’ve inspired, nurtured, and submitted such fine writing; AD 700 Professors Nasser McMayo and Mary Ann Biehl whose students designed a variety of fine possible covers; Graphic Arts Program Director Lloyd Carr who graciously coordinated the graphics element of production and whose GA 732 and GA 513 students formatted and printed the cover. The support of President Russell Hotzler and Provost Bonne August is of inestimable importance, and Dr. Stephen Soiffer, and Ms. Marilyn Morrison have also generously smoothed the way for a successful outcome. Professor Steve Caputo and the printers George and Peter Pompilio are committed to excellence and I’ve enjoyed working with them; and Alberto Vargas, Senior Designer, Image and Visual Communications, has wonderfully photographed and publicized the President’s memorable reception. I thank English Department Chair Brian Keener for his strong valuing of the publication; Professor Kate Falvey, whose student’s award-winning short story appeared in Volume 1 (her name was inadvertently left off the listing); Professor Nina Bannett for her helpful feedback; Professor Marta Effinger-Crichlow for her thoughtful input; and Lily Lam and Elayne Rinn, English Department secretaries, for their always graciously extended and extensive help. But most of all I thank the student writers who make teaching a great pleasure, and whose writing focuses with clarity and spirit on things that matter. Jane Mushabac, Editor in Chief TABLE OF CONTENTS Each listing provides the title and author of a work, and the professor and course for which it was written Reading and Malcolm X Aisha Kenion Professor Harris, English 101 Scenic Design for The Cherry Orchard Colin Fredericson Professor Vey, Theatre 380 The Pilgrim and Puritan Contributions Andrew Aaron Vega Professor Broer, English 220 The Magic of Antoni Gaudi Jesmin Aktar Professor Calhoun, Architecture 121 Using Porous Silica to Treat Cancer: Our Research Experience Lisalena Galarza and Victor Acevedo Professor Ying, Biological Sciences 301.2 Professor Kruk (College of Staten Island) Sunday Suffocation Olendi Saavedra Professor Mushabac, English 121 Erasmus Hall Brian O’Daly Professor Mushabac, English 402 Harlem Ingrid Jeannot Paul Doyle English Department Research Paper Award Professor Mushabac, English 121 How to Become a New Yorker Sean Ballantine Professor Rudden, English 101 Underground Clarence Leaphart, Jr. E.B. White Prize for Best Essay on New York Professor Noonan, English 101 Internship Journal: Advocacy and Outreach with Disenfranchised Communities and Undocumented Immigrants Angela C. Romulus Professor Negron, Human Services 801 Bicycle David Guzman Professor Vey, Theatre 380 Rice Atsuko Okada Professor Schaible, Hospitality Management 303 Sea Urchins Rokhaya Samba Professor Schaible, Hospitality Management 303 Sorrel Drink, A Christmas Treat Tamara Chambers Professor Schaible, Hospitality Management 303 The Hero in My Life Evelyn Manzueta Professor Lichterman, Speech 330 Letter to President Lincoln Shawndell John Professor Lichterman , Speech 330 My Son Keisha Nettles Professor Hapke, English 121 New York City: From Broadway to Bellevue Valerie Pennington Professor Fox, English 101 Constitutional Rights and Real Property: Eminent Domain Mabel M. Pluas-Martinez Professor Espinoza-Sanchez, Law and Paralegal Studies 202 The Training Crisis in Restorative Dentistry Rebecca Schmucker Professor Budny, Dental Laboratory Technology 115 Africa: Uncivilized or Critically Undermined? Alaedeen Khalil Professor Botchway, African American Studies 401 Readings in American Literature Have Improved My Understanding of the Role of African-Americans In American Culture: Final Exam Essay Marie Brown Professor Broer, English 221 The Pauscher Case Study Donna Milling Professor Lespinasse, Radiologic Technology 426 Deafness in a Hemingway Short Story Joseph F. Sogno Professor Hapke, English 200 How the Hospitality Industry Is in Compliance With ADA Laws Lauren A. Schulof Prof. Freedman, Hospitality Management 801 A Brief Opinion Survey on Gender Roles and Family Anna Grechikhina Professor Bardallo-Vivero, Sociology 101 Anne Roiphe’s Essay: “A Tale of Two Divorces” Tarika Williams Professor Lee, English 101 Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” Simone McKenzie Professor Alexis, English 121 White-Collar Crime is More Harmful Than Street Crime Charles Evelyn Professor Bardallo-Vivero, Sociology 101 Projecting My Future as an Older Adult Elizabeth Collins Professor McGuinn, Nursing 103 Poem Madelyne Shabot Professor Martinucci, Radiologic Technology 226 The Creative Mind Links Itself to Science Francisco Lopez Prof. Wortzel, Advertising Design 620 Urban Sociology: Roger and Me Nadia Menard Professor Panayotakis, Sociology 102 A Rose Is Special: Tupac Shakur’s Lyrics Changjing Xu Professor Hapke, English 200 I Am Music Sherryann A. Robert Professor Effinger-Crichlow, African American Studies 250 Impact Speech Eric Bourne Professor Berger, Speech 330 Reading and Malcolm X Aisha Kenion Reading can mean a lot of things: analysis, interpretation, impression, and evaluation. My experiences with reading came easily. My parents, who were patient with my progress, taught me. It is less complicated to learn how to read as a child than as an adult. In reading Malcolm X’s chapter entitled “Saved,” I see learning to read was very challenging for him. Not knowing how to read shamed him tremendously. He often felt he had to apologize for his poor handwriting and grammar. Malcolm X’s determination to learn how to read came from envy. He was jealous of a fellow prisoner’s knowledge and others’ interest in what that prisoner had to say. In the beginning, Malcolm X could neither read nor write well. He had poor spelling and grammar. His penmanship was hardly legible. In the process of exploring the letter he wrote Elijah Muhammad, he shares, “I was trying to make it both legible and understandable. I practically couldn’t read my handwriting myself; it shames [me] even to remember it. My spelling and my grammar were as bad, if not worse. Anyway, as well as I could express it, I said I had been told about him by my brothers and sisters, and I apologized for my poor letter” (169). The shame Malcolm X felt about himself gave him the urgent desire to learn. The fact that he had to apologize for his poor writing skills encouraged him greatly to solve his problem. Most would say that he was just apologizing to Muhammad, but I believe he was apologizing to himself. His need to make the letters both legible and understandable was a direct problem. Because he had to try so hard to do something so simple, he felt the need to apologize for it. In the street, Malcolm X was used to the attention he got. When he spoke everyone listened, but all that changed when he was arrested. A fellow prison mate named Bimbi was Malcolm’s superior when it came to reading and social conversations. Bimbi held himself with confidence when he spoke to others. He presented himself with bulky words that demonstrated his intelligence. In prison, Malcolm went through a dramatic change in status. Malcolm explains, “In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there—I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way I would say it, something such as, ‘Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat, Elijah Muhammad—’” (171). While in the streets, he didn’t need to try so hard to get people to listen. He always got the attention he desired. Out there his words were power, but in prison your words had to be right. He couldn’t adjust from street language to proper English; he realized he couldn’t write the way he used to talk. In prison others were not focusing on him. He changed from being envied to being envious of Bimbi. In resentment, Malcolm tried to compete with Bimbi but couldn’t reach his level.